Having now read Alexander’s book, I can say that it is every bit as remarkable as his Newsweek cover article suggested it would be. Unfortunately, it is not remarkable in the way that its author believes…

…

… The impediment to taking Alexander’s claims seriously can be simply stated: There is absolutely no reason to believe that his cerebral cortex was inactive at the time he had his experience of the afterlife. The fact that Alexander thinks he has demonstrated otherwise — by continually emphasizing how sick he was, the infrequency of E. coli meningitis, and the ugliness of his initial CT scan — suggests a deliberate disregard of the most plausible interpretation of his experience.